Author: Frances Pohl
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Art history major Daisy Adams was awarded the Louisa Moseley Fine Arts Prize by the Department of Art History for an outstanding art history senior thesis. The title of her thesis was “A Flask from the Past: The Didactic Usage of the Tale of Psyche and Cupid in Renaissance Italy.” It focused on a maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) pilgrim flask from 16th century Italy by Francesco Xanto Avelli that contained a scene from the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Daisy showed how visual representations of this tale functioned as directives to Italian women regarding their expected roles in marriage.

Erin Hoey (ARCN-SC), “Out of Site, But Not Out of Mind: The Conservation and Display of Ancient Roman Floor Mosaics In Situ and in Museums” (First reader: Michelle Berenfeld, Second reader: Eric Doehne)

Daisy Adams (ARHI-PO), “A Flask from the Past: The Didactic Usage of the Tale of Psyche and Cupid in Renaissance Italy” (First reader: George Gorse, Second reader: Corey Tazzara)

Caroline Nelson (ARHI-SC), “By the Hands of a Woman: Gender, Luxury, and International Relations in Andrea Mantegna’s Judith and Holofernes” (First reader: George Gorse, Second reader: Corey Tazzara)

Jasmine Kusumowidagdo (ARHI-SC), “Adding Up the Arts: The Great Recession and the Public-Private Debate in the Funding of America’s Art and Art Museums” (First reader: Mary MacNaughton, Second reader: Matthew Magilke [CMC]

On April 7 at 4:15 pm in Lebus Court 113, Dr. Patricia Blessing, H. Allen Brooks Traveling Fellow, Society of Architectural Historians (1015-16), presented a lecture entitled “Anatolia and Iberia: Medieval Frontiers in Art Historical Perspective.” In this talk, Dr. Blessing considered two medieval frontier regions, Iberia and Anatolia, looking at patterns of patronage that do not necessarily reflect political realities and considering to what extent both regions can be viewed within the framework of a medieval Mediterranean, without ignoring their regional and local specificities. She concentrated on buildings from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that were sites of multiple identities, cultures, and religions. While the buildings themselves occupy center stage in her discussion of Anatolia, the connections between textiles and architecture inform her comments on Iberia.

Art History classes at Pomona College often involve field trips to visit Los Angeles area museums. On Sunday, January 24, 2016 Professor Frances Pohl took her Art History 184 class to see the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural by Judith Baca in North Hollywood and an exhibition of the landscape paintings of the Canadian artist Lawren Harris at the Hammer Museum in Westwood.

Students and Professors Pohl and Gorse at the Hammer Museum (with work of US artist Kenny Scharf)

Exhibition of landscapes of Canadian artist Lawren Harris at the Hammer Museum

Art historian Gerald M. Ackerman, Professor Emeritus of Pomona College, died peacefully at his Claremont home on Friday, January 1, 2016. He was 87.

He was born in Alameda, California and grew up in Santa Cruz, the son of Alois and Eva Sadler Ackerman. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1952 and studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany before earning his doctorate in art history and architecture at Princeton University.

Professor Ackerman taught for six years at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and then returned to California to teach as associate professor at Stanford University for five years before moving to Pomona College in 1970, retiring in 1989. He was the driving force within Pomona’s Department of Art and Art History throughout the 1970s, and established a strong institutional presence for art history.

Professor Ackerman was a recognized expert in the field of 19th century art and renowned for his book on the French painter and sculptor Jean Léon Gérôme. He published many other books and articles on American and European art and academic theory and is recognized especially for his Bargue-Gérôme Drawing Course. The book, which he wrote with the help of artist Graydon Parrish, is assigned reading in many drawing classes at schools across the country and cemented his reputation among a wide range of realist artists in the U.S. His last work, yet-to-be published, was on the John Nava tapestries at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles.

In 2012, in honor of his work on Gérôme, Professor Ackerman was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture and Communication of the French government, one of the nation’s highest honors bestowed on scholars who distinguish themselves through their creative endeavors in the fields of art and literature. The year before, he was the recipient of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine’s Trailblazer Award. Publisher B. Eric Rhodes said of him, “He was one of the finest art historians of our time and his influence will be felt for generations.”

Professor Ackerman spoke six languages and traveled all over Europe and the Middle East. He was passionate about opera, especially those by Wagner, classical music and reading the numerous books he cherished. He will be remembered not only for his intellect and scholarship, but also for his quick wit and his generosity.

He was preceded in death in 2014 by his husband and life-partner of 52 years, the actor and art historian Leonard R. Simon, who produced four plays Professor Ackerman had written. He is survived by his sister Lois Ackerman Lawson, brother Alois Ackerman, and several generations of nieces and nephews.

On Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 1:30 pm in Lyman Hall, Thatcher Music Building on the campus of Pomona College art history senior Daisy Adams, winner of the Rembrandt Club Summer Research Grant of 2015, presented a talk on her summer project entitled “Silversmith Clara Barck Welles and the Arts and Crafts and Women’s Movements of the Early 20th Century” to the October meeting of the Rembrandt Club.